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Meet the mobile home of the future, from 1934

Mobile homes might have made the world a very different place, had a 1934 prediction about a new kind of domestic dwelling come true.

The prediction featured in an issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics magazine and it was based on a then-recent patent application for a new method of making spherical metal containers.

Mobile homes might have made the world a very different place, had a 1934 prediction about a new kind of domestic dwelling come true.

The prediction featured in an issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics magazine and it was based on a then-recent patent application for a new method of making spherical metal containers.

The published piece reckoned that the technology would one day allow prefabricated houses to be built inside enormous spheres that could then be towed and deposited to a particular place. A ‘tyre’ running around the sphere’s perimeter stops it from being damaged as it’s rolled.

The interior was presumably installed once the sphere was secured in place, but there’s no mention of how plumbing and power would be handled.

Still, the idea would all but remove the need for a caravan or motorhome, since the design would allow the house to be hitched and towed to more or less any location, although such non-trivial details as a braking system and a powerful enough tow-car would obviously need to be considered…